Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne || A Foray Into Love, Loss, and Mythology

Josephine Against the Sea

Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology.

Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That's why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She's desperate to make it onto her school's cricket team because she'll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating.
But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can't try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . .

The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn't scare easily. Josephine knows there's something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father's first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss's clutches before it's too late?

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Unique (and sometimes creepy) Caribbean mythology and lore.
• A strong, Black, female protagonist who can hold her own.
• A healthy exploration of grief, loss, and healing.
• Family bonds and overcoming adversity together.
• Autistic rep.
• Creepy middle grade horror set in Barbados.

Many thanks to Scholastic and TBR and Beyond Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I’m forever on the lookout for middle grade books that deal with grief/loss and healing so of course I was excited to learn about this one! Not only does it have a wonderful story about healing and personal growth, but it’s got some wonderful Caribbean mythology and autism rep. So it’s not like I ever really stood a chance at resisting it from the start!

Josephine Against the Sea is a magical exploration of family bonds, grief, and healing, set on Barbados and filled with diverse characters and Caribbean mythology.

This book hit me in the feels at all the right places. There were definitely times Josephine acted bratty, but her actions make sense the more you learn about her. Plus, it leads to some stunning character growth that I absolutely loved! Barbados makes a wonderful, vivid setting that I’m dying to explore more. I thought this was a standalone, but it seems it’s going to be the first in a series, and I’m really excited to see what’s next for Josephine!

Welcome to the Caribbean, where the mythology is both terrifying and attention-grabbing and some of my favorite.

My first introduction to a lot of this mythology was actually The Jumbies. If you’ve read that book, you’ll recognize some of the creatures in this book. If not, boy are you in for a wild ride! Caribbean mythology is rich and fascinating and something I’ve come to love immensely!

Bourne thrusts the reader into a world filled with lagahoo, soucouyants, baccoo, Mami Wata, and others. If you’re utterly confused and have no idea what any of those things are . . . you’ll just need to read the book and discover them for yourself! That’s part of the fun of books like this if it’s a setting and/or culture you’re not familiar with. I’ve never been to Barbados, but Bourne does a great job of bringing the island to life and introducing the reader to a taste of island life.

After losing her mother, Josephine refuses to let another woman get close to her father, in a plight that’s so full of emotion and utterly relatable.

Anyone whose parents have separated might recognize this urge. It’s a childish one for sure, but not an uncommon one. In Josephine’s case, it’s hard to hold it against her. After all, her mother passed and she hasn’t allowed herself to grieve yet—not even to cry! She struggles to hold everything together, including what’s left of her family, which is a lot for someone her age to take on.

Despite all this, Josephine’s growth throughout the novel is utterly breathtaking. She grows up a lot in the course of 300 pages as she faces her grief head-on, with the help of the people around her. Even in her most childish moments, it’s hard not to root for Josephine, especially since she acts out of love (even when it’s misguided). She’s such a relatable protagonist that I think middle grade readers, especially ones grappling with similar things, will really be able to latch on to her character.

Bourne strikes a fine balance between creepy scenes full of monsters and magic to heartwarming scenes of friendship and love.

Fans of horror will love the creepy atmosphere and intermittent scenes sure to give you at least a little chill. It isn’t too dark, though, because there are plenty of warm, uplifting scenes, too. The family bonds in this are *chef’s kiss* in the end, but there are rocky moments, as with any family.

I think the real strength of the narrative is in the ways the family falls apart and how the characters learn to overcome it together. The characters don’t always do as the reader might expect (or even want). But I think it’s important for young readers to see characters make mistakes and learn how to overcome them, because that’s a crucial skill for life in general!

The characters in this book are wonderfully diverse, from the setting (Barbados) to the dialect and slang, to the protagonist’s best friend, who happens to have autism.

It’s rare for books set in the Caribbean to topple onto my TBR. Generally, they’re books I have to specifically seek out, which is unfortunate, because this book shows what a rich, gorgeous setting it can be! I absolutely love this push for more diverse books, though, because it affords me the ability to experience books like Josephine Against the Sea, which I feel are super important for children like the ones at my library, who will likely never see another state, let alone country, until well into their adulthood.

More than just the setting, though, I love that Josephine’s best friend, Ahkai, is autistic, but a big deal isn’t made of about how different he is. Rather, it’s presented as that’s just Ahkai. In this area, at least, autism is still something most people don’t understand well, so I always love literature that represents autistic people well. Ahkai’s autism is mentioned in the beginning and then never again. He’s a quirky character in terms of how he views the world and his compulsion for saying things five times . . . but then aren’t they all quirky characters? (In this book, the answer is yes, which is why they’re all so darn lovable.)

I’m not autistic myself, so I can’t speak to the authenticity of the representation. However, I enjoyed that the narrative made it very clear that Josephine is friends with Ahkai because of who he is, not despite it, which I think is a pitfall some books unfortunately fall into.

About Shakirah Bourne

Shakirah Bourne is a Barbadian author and filmmaker. Her first feature film, the comedy-drama, PAYDAY, was screened throughout the Caribbean, USA and UK. She has written three films since its debut in 2013: Two Smart (writer/co-director), Next PAYDAY (writer/producer) and A Caribbean Dream (writer/director). A Caribbean Dream is distributed by Verve Pictures and had a cinema release in London in 2017. The film won several awards, including Best Drama at the National Film Awards UK,  Best International Feature at the Charlotte Black Film Festival and best UK Feature at the London Independent Film Festival.

Her short stories have been featured in many literary journals (see below). Her self-published collection of short stories, IN TIME OF NEED (2013), won the prestigious Governor General Award for Excellence in Literary Fiction. She was a finalist for the BURT/CODE Award for Caribbean Literature in 2018. The Caribbean edition of her middle grade novel, MY FISHY STEPMOM, was published by Blue Banyan Books (2019) and the North American edition, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA, will be published by Scholastic in 2021.

She was  a Part-time Lecturer at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and is a Part-Time Lecturer in Screenwriting at the Barbados Community College. She currently holds Certificates in Screenwriting from the Barbados Community College and the University of Edinburgh, and an MA (Hons) in Arts and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University.

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